Pair charged with door-kicking burglaries in Woodbury Heights

WOODBURY HEIGHTS — Two people accused of staging three daylight burglaries by kicking in residence doors were arrested Monday shortly after police were alerted to the third break in.

Mario U. Liquori, 27, of West Second Avenue, Mantua, and Brittany E. Murphy, 19, of Franklin Avenue in Mantua, were stopped on North East Avenue in Wenonah as Woodbury Heights police were responding at 9:09 a.m. to reports of a burglary in progress in the 1100 block of Walnut Avenue in that town.

Wenonah Sgt. Wayne Muhlbaier was headed to back up Woodbury Heights police when the suspect’s car passed him, police said. Muhlbaier stopped the car and brought the couple back to Woodbury Heights.

After some investigation, police charged the pair with two earlier burglaries on Beech Avenue in Woodbury Heights in the past several months. Police also obtained information about burglaries in Deptford and Wenonah.

A third suspect was identified and Woodbury Heights Police Chief George Lindsay said he expects that person to be arrested soon.

In each of the Heights burglaries, a back door was kicked in; one was a metal door with a dead-bolt lock, said police. Computers, money, jewelry and drugs were taken in the previous burglaries; $160 cash was taken on Monday, police said.

A witness to Monday’s break in said the sound of the door being kicked in sounded like an explosion, police said.

Liquori, who is unemployed, was charged with burglary, theft, possession of burglary tools — in the form of a flashlight, a razor knife and a pair of pliers — and conspiracy, and was committed to the Gloucester County Jail in Woodbury in default of $50,000 full cash bail, police said.

Liquori faces charges in Deptford for two burglaries in Oak Valley. Wenonah charges are pending.

He is awaiting sentencing on April 30 after pleading guilty to a December theft, authorities said. He reportedly was committing the burglaries so he could use the money in the prison commissary while serving his sentence, said police.

Murphy, a part-time Gloucester County College student, was charged with conspiracy and released on her own recognizance.

In the Oak Valley incidents, Deptford Detective Sgt. George Johnson
said, Murphy would knock on a door to serve as a distraction while Liquori would move to
the back of the home and kick the doors in to gain entry.

The door to a residence on Lehigh Avenue was damaged, but the house was not
entered.

Around the corner on Muhlenberg Avenue, Liquori allegedly made it inside
and got away with protective body armor used in archery.

Johnson said connecting the cases and the pair's apprehension was just
an example of good police work between departments in cooperation with the community.

"We had one resident that gave us some really good information on their getaway vehicle," Johnson said. "If residents see something suspicious,
it's always better to give police a call to come check things out.'